Month: January 2024

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar is set to take part in the 54th World Economic Forum (WEF) annual moot, which will take place in Davos, Switzerland from January 15 to 19.

The WEF is an annual conference that brings together leaders from industry and government to talk about the world’s current issues and trends, as well as to map out possible joint policy solutions.

With this year’s theme being “Rebuilding Trust”, the premier is scheduled to attend three key thematic events, including preventing an era of global conflict, restoring faith in the global system, and preventing economic fracture, Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said during her weekly press briefing.

The prime minister would also deliver a keynote address on the theme “Trade Tech’s Trillion Dollar Promise” and hold meetings with government and business leaders on the sidelines, she added.

The FO spokesperson also stressed Pakistan’s rejection of the US State Department’s classification of it as a “Country of Particular Concern (CPC)”.

“There are serious questions about the credibility and transparency of the process of making such classifications.

Baloch said: “We also believe that such unilateral, arbitrary, and subjective designations and reports are counterproductive and undermine the objective of advancing religious freedoms,” the spokesperson noted.

In the same presser, Baloch further underscored that Pakistan supported the application filed by South Africa before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concerning Israel’s violations of its obligations under the 1951 Genocide Convention about the Palestinian people in Gaza.

“We consider this legal action timely and an important step towards holding Israel to account for its well-documented atrocities unleashed against Palestinian people since 7th October 2023,” she said.

“Israel’s ongoing military aggression and actions against the Palestinian people constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity and amount to genocidal acts,” Baloch added while stressing that Pakistan shares the concerns raised in the application by South Africa.

The spokesperson also said that the fifth of January was observed as the Right to Self-Determination Day for the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

On this day in 1949, she said, the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) adopted a resolution guaranteeing a free and fair plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir, to enable the Kashmiri people to realize their right to self-determination.

“The right to self-determination is a fundamental tenet of international law. Every year, the UN General Assembly adopts a resolution that reaffirms the legal right of people to decide their destiny,” she said.

As the political temperature goes up with nearing February 8 polls, political rivalry between once allies, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), also simmers as Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has said his election opponents “always try to run away from polls”.

The pre-election salvo from the ex-foreign minister came during Wednesday’s rally of the PPP in the PML-N’s Lahore stronghold.

In the fiery speech, the PPP chairman threw shade at his former ally, saying that he won’t let the Nawaz Sharif-led party “run away from polls”.

 

 

The PPP seems to be in an all-out electioneering mode but the PML-N’s low-key electioneering has raised eyebrows as it delays ticket issuance to candidates as the nation gears up to cast ballots in the general election.

Accusing the PML-N of “always running from elections” in their Lahore stronghold on Wednesday, Bilawal has upped the ante in the race for the upcoming polls, as he also said: “I heard the PML-N ruled the NA-127 constituency, but I can’t see it’s visibility here.”

“We won’t let Noon League run away from elections. We are on the ground, where is the PML-N?” Bilawal wondered as he continued his tirade of the Nawaz-led party not doing enough for electioneering and “undermining the electoral process”.

“I can’t even see the PTI [Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf] over here,” he said, assailing the embattled party, which just secured its iconic ‘bat’ electoral symbol earlier in the day after a court order.

Just like the PPP, the PTI was also complaining about not getting a level-playing field. However, as the days pass, the PPP chairman — who became Pakistan’s youngest foreign minister last year — has shifted focus on his campaign “to win”.

The PPP, which for more than a decade formed the sole government in Sindh, is now vying to come into power not only in the other three provinces but also in the Centre, in a bid to make Bilawal the next prime minister.

“The ‘arrow’ will win. I can foresee the PPP’s victory. After the victory, we will change the fate of this city, province, and country,” said Bilawal who was nominated as his party’s prime minister candidate this month.

The PPP’s top leader also vowed that he would work hard and become the nation’s “voice”, claiming that he would ensure that the salaries of the masses rise. He also made a promise to roll out welfare schemes for labourers and the class with lower salaries.

RAWALPINDI: Two soldiers were martyred during a gun battle with terrorists in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lakki Marwat district, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said Wednesday, in the latest terror strike on the military.

In a statement, the ISPR — army’s media wing — said that a “fire exchange took place between the security forces and terrorists” in the district, during which the Pakistan Army’s security forces ”effectively engaged the terrorists’ location”.

As a result of their exchange, two terrorists — identified as Aftab aka Malang and Masood Shah — were “sent to hell”, the statement mentioned.

“These terrorists remained actively involved in numerous terrorist activities against the security forces as well as targeted killings of innocent civilians,” the ISPR added.

The security forces also recovered weapons, ammunition, and explosives following the completion of the task.

However, during the intense exchange of fire, two brave soldiers — Sepoy Muhammad Afzal, 29, resident of district Bhimber, Azad Kashmir, and Sepoy Ibrar Hussain, 27, resident of district Mansehra — embraced martyrdom after fighting gallantly.

In response, a sanitisation operation is being carried out to eliminate any terrorists found in the area, the ISPR said.

“…the security forces of Pakistan are determined to wipe out the menace of terrorism from the country and such sacrifices of our brave soldiers further strengthen our resolve,” the military’s media wing added.

Pakistan has witnessed an alarming surge in terror-related incidents since the Taliban-led administration took over Afghanistan in 2021.

The year 2023 saw as many as 586 terror attacks with 17% claimed by the banned terror outfits such as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), Daesh and others.

Meanwhile, security forces conducted 197 operations against outlaws leaving 537-545 of them dead.

As per the Annual Security Report released by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), the country witnessed 1,524 deaths and 1,463 injuries in the previous year.

The race for the white house has begun, as the 2024 United States elections come close, presidential candidates Ron DeSantis and former United Nations envoy Nikki Haley came in a face-off on Wednesday in the fifth Republican party debate in Iowa state.

The CNN-hosted debate, showed Haley and Destantis tearing each other apart by accusing one another of lies, they insulted each other records and characters, while Donald Trump decided to skip and participate in an interview by Fox News on the same day, at the same time.

Critics believe this to be a calculated move to draw viewers away from his rival’s events by using a ‘counter-programming’ strategy.

The Iowa Caucasus is scheduled to begin on the 15th of January, it will be the inaugural contest in the US election season. The presidential election is scheduled to be on 5th November.

President Joe Biden, former president Donald Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and former United Nations envoy Nikki Haley are all potential candidates along with several others.

The results from the Iowa Caucasus will be setting the mood for this election season. It will allow US nationals to gauge party and candidate performances.

According to a polling average compiled by the website FiveThirtyEight, Trump had 50% support among Republican primary voters in Iowa, while his next closest rivals DeSantis at 18.4% and Haley at 15.7%.

LAHORE: Former prime minister Imran Khan had made a panic midnight call to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 27, 2019, following the Balakot airstrikes in a bid to avert a military crisis, reports Indian media citing the memoirs of a former high commissioner to Pakistan.

In his upcoming book — The Anger Management: The Troubled Diplomatic Relationship between India and Pakistan — Ajay Bisaria notes that on the night of February 27, a day after Balakot airstrike conducted by the Indian Air Force, Pakistan feared an imminent attack from India.

India had conducted an airstrike in Balakot on February 26 while Pakistan responded by conducting airstrikes in Indian-held territory and an ensuing dogfight, PAF jets shot down two Indian jets and captured Indian pilot Abhinandan Varthaman.

According to Bisaria, then-Pakistan foreign secretary Tehmina Janjua received a message from the army, saying that nine Indian missiles were pointed towards Pakistan and could be launched any time that day.

The foreign secretary requested foreign envoys to report this intelligence to their capitals and ask India not to escalate the situation, notes Bisaria. As the crisis deepened, Imran Khan took a decisive step by requesting a midnight phone call to PM Modi, seeking urgent dialogue to defuse the escalating tension. The call was reportedly facilitated by the then Pakistani High Commissioner Sohail Mahmood, who contacted his counterpart in Delhi.

“At around midnight, I got a call in Delhi from Pakistani High Commissioner Sohail Mahmood, now in Islamabad, who said that PM Imran Khan was keen to talk to Prime Minister Modi. I checked upstairs and responded that our prime minister was not available at that hour, but in case Imran Khan had any urgent message to convey, he could, of course, convey it to me. I got no call back that night,” Bisaria says in his book.

Bisaria writes, “We were willing to send an Indian Air Force aircraft to pick him up but Pakistan refused permission; the optics of an Indian Air Force plane landing in Islamabad after all that had happened over the previous three days, was, of course, not acceptable to Pakistan.

“Even China, not to be left behind, had suggested that it could send its deputy minister to both countries to seek de-escalation. India had politely declined the offer,” he says.

“One of them recommended to her that Pakistan should convey its concerns directly to India,” says Bisaria.

Bisaria says “Pakistan’s PM would himself make these announcements and the pilot would be returned to India the next day. He says India’s “coercive diplomacy” had been effective, its expectations of Pakistan and of the world had been clear, backed by a credible resolve to escalate the crisis.

“Prime Minister Modi would later say in a campaign speech that, ‘Fortunately, Pakistan announced that the pilot would be sent back to India. Else, it would have been ‘qatal ki raat’ (a night of bloodshed)”.

On overall regional geopolitics, Bisaria writes that Pakistan Prime Minister, Imran Khan conveyed to China that it should support Islamabad since the US decided to back India against China, but Chinese President Xi Jinping “declared that China would not be propping up Pakistan against India”.

“I also learnt that Khan had told the Chinese that they should support Pakistan since the US had decided to support India against China. President Xi Jinping apparently responded sharply to Imran Khan for this simplistic geopolitical assessment and declared that China would not be propping up Pakistan against India,” he says.

“He had advised Khan that it was the US that could help Pakistan in its India relationship and it would be in Pakistan’s interest to make up with the US as well as with Afghanistan,” Bisaria writes.

Later that night, the US and UK envoys in Delhi told India’s foreign secretary that Pakistan was “ready to de-escalate the situation, act on India’s dossier, and to seriously address the issue of terrorism”, notes Bisaria.

The next day, Imran Khan addressed the media and announced the release of the pilot. While Imran Khan dubbed the release of Varthaman as a “peace gesture”, Bisaria notes that this was due to India’s coercive diplomacy.

Bisaria also mentions in his book that Pakistan’s then president Pervez Musharraf’s “overreach” in publicly airing his hawkish views on Kashmir, his lack of intent in containing terrorism and insistence on a formulation linking forward movement in overall ties to progress on Kashmir led to the collapse of Agra Summit in 2001 and not because of LK Advani’s hardline approach.

Bisaria reveals Pakistan’s spy agency ISI had tipped off India through the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad about an al-Qaeda plot to carry out an attack in Kashmir in June 2019, which turned out to be genuine.

Pakistan has maintained since the Balkot incident that it returned Indian pilot as a peace overture. Addressing Pakistan’s lawmakers in the National Assembly on February 28, then PM Imran Khan said, “As a peace gesture we are releasing the Indian pilot tomorrow (March 1).”

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye on Monday discussed a prospective collaboration in the defence equipment technologies including research and development (R&D), the military’s media wing said on Tuesday.

The Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said this was discussed in the second meeting of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye Trilateral Defence Collaboration at the General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi.

“The three sides reaffirmed the importance of combining the intellectual, technical, financial and human resource of the three friendly nations towards the achievement of shared objectives and attainment of self sufficiency in the defence domain,” the ISPR said.

Acknowledging the historical brotherly relations, the three sides reiterated the strategic intent to increase the scope of trilateral cooperation and the need to enhance the pace of collaboration in pursuit of common goals, the military’s media wing said.

The three sides, as per the ISPR, agreed to convene next meeting on Trilateral Defence Industrial Collaboration during World Defence Show in Riyadh in February.

Pakistan, S Arabia express desire to enhance defence ties

Meanwhile, the third meeting of the Pakistan-KSA Defence Collaboration was also held at the GHQ, Rawalpindi a day earlier.

The ISPR said the forum underscored the significance of historical relations between the two brotherly states. Participants discussed issues of bilateral interest and the evolving security environment, it added.

The two sides deliberated upon rapid advancements in military technologies and the need for defence industrial cooperation between the two states towards the fulfilment of shared objectives, the media wing said.

It said both sides reaffirmed their desire to enhance defence cooperation in all domains to achieve self-sufficiency in the field of defence production.

The forum reiterated the need to explore further avenues for defence cooperation and enhance the pace of collaboration, it added.

PESHAWAR: Acting Prime Minister of Afghanistan Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund on Monday said his country did not have any intention of inflicting damage upon or creating problems for Pakistan or any other neighbouring country.

During the meeting with a delegation of Pakistani religious leaders led by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUIF) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Mullah Hasan Akhund said they dealt each issue in Afghanistan as per the Islamic Sharia, as the country was governed by Sharia, and Sharia did not allow hurting anyone or any other country including Pakistan.

The Afghanistan acting PM also reiterated that they would not give permission to use their soil against any other country.

He, however, called for an end to what he termed “cruel attitude of the Pakistan government authorities” towards the Afghan refugees, saying such actions created more problems rather than finding solutions to issues.

Afghan interim government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said that Mullah Akhund welcomed the Pakistani religious leaders in Kabul and appreciated their role in resolving issues and misunderstandings.

Mujahid said the delegation also discussed other issues being faced by the traders of the two countries. He said Akhund told the Pakistani religious leaders that Afghanistan and Pakistan could never be separated from each other as both countries had many similarities.

The two sides stressed the need for finding more ways to resolve issues and avoid practices that could further escalate tensions between the two neighbours.

Besides Fazl, Maulana Abdul Wasey, Maulana Salahuddin, Maulana Kamaluddin, Maulana Jamaluddin, Maulana Salimuddin Shamzai, Maulana Imdadullah, Maulana Sheikh Mohammad Idrees, Dr Atiqur Rahman and Mufti Ibrar were also present in the meeting.

The Afghan government was represented by Hasan Akhund and was accompanied by chief justice of Afghanistan Maulvi Abdul Hakim Haqqani, foreign minister Maulvi Amir Khan Muttaqi, minister of Hajj and Auqaf, Maulvi Noor Mohammad Saqib, and other high-ranking officials.

Muttaqi stressed the need for facilitating the traders and businessmen of the two countries.

“The basic purpose of our visit is to remove the mistrust between Pakistan and Afghanistan,” said Fazl.

He told the Afghan officials that JUIF had raised voice against Pakistan authorities’ attitude towards the Afghan refugees, and termed it one of the factors responsible for creating tensions between the two countries. “We have brought a message of solidarity to Afghanistan and believe that it will have a positive impact,” said Fazl.

Meanwhile, according to sources, the Pakistani Taliban have not been informed about any likely meeting between them and the Pakistani religious leaders. However, the hosts of the Pakistani delegation may arrange their meetings with certain leaders of the Pakistani Taliban during their stay in Afghanistan.

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has closed six corruption inquiries including the Sharif Trust case filed against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif and his family members.

In a statement issued by the accountability body, the decision was made during the Executive Board Meeting (EBM) of the bureau, held on January 1, 2024, chaired by NAB Chairman Lt Gen (retd) Nazir Ahmed Butt.

NAB said that it got the approval to terminate the Sharif Trust case. The investigation into the case was authorised on March 31, 2000, and the complaint alleged that the Sharif family had received large sums of money through illicit means in the Sharif Trust.

Additionally, it was claimed that the trust’s accounts had not undergone audit scrutiny and that funds had been misappropriated. The allegations further included the acquisition of assets by the Sharif family under the guise of benami properties held in the name of the trust.

In its report submitted to Supreme Court, the joint investigation team (JIT) formed to probe Panama Papers had criticised the NAB for delaying the investigation into the Sharif Trust case without proper justification.

The JIT recommended that the NAB be directed to take swift action to complete the investigation.

Now, the bureau has terminated the investigation under Section 31-B of the National Accountability Act, 2022, as amended by the Shehbaz Sharif-led Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM)-led government.

Section 31B states: “Withdrawal and Termination of Pending Proceedings: (1) Prior to the filing of a reference, the Chairman, NAB, in consultation with the Prosecutor General, may, having regard to the totality of facts, circumstances, and evidence, partly, wholly, conditionally, or unconditionally withdraw or terminate any proceedings under this Act if such proceedings are unjustified.

“(2) After the filing of a reference, if the Chairman, NAB, in consultation with the Prosecutor General, is of the view that the reference is partly or wholly unjustified, he may recommend to the Court for approval where the matter is pending that the reference may partly or wholly be withdrawn or terminated, and upon such withdrawal or termination: (i) if it is made before a charge has been framed, the accused shall be discharged in respect of such offence or offences; and (ii) if it is made after a charge has been framed, he shall be acquitted in respect of such offence or offences.”

Other than that, NAB also closed the Safe City corruption case against Islamabad Inspector General (IG) Akbar Nasir Khan and the Park Enclave Housing Society case against officers/officials of Capital Development Authority (CDA).

The accountability body also terminated the inquiries against the federal government officials regarding illegal appointments of favoured individuals, inquiries against Shahid Malik, Shahbaz Yaseen Malik, Saima Shehbaz Malik, and others.